Paul Stanley of Kiss on Ace Frehley and Peter Criss: ‘I Was Never Really Friends With Them’

Kiss frontman Paul Stanley says former bandmates Peter Criss and Ace Frehley became “impossible” and “intolerable” and that he hasn’t talked to either in years. If fans were hoping for another reunion, it’s not going to happen.

“Friends? No I was never really friends with them,” Stanley tells Bang Showbiz (via BigPondNews.com). “The band was never about friendship, the band was about commitment to a cause, but friendship? We were all very different people.”

Frehley first left the band in 1982, but rejoined in 1996 until leaving again in 2002. Criss officially left in 1980, and rejoined several times in the mid-90s and early 2000s. Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer are now the band’s drummer and lead guitarist, respectively.

Stanley is doing interviews in support of the band’s new book, the $4,300 ‘Monster‘ which is available today. It’s likely he’ll be doing more in advance of the band’s October release of their new album, also titled ‘Monster.’

“I loved them for what we created together, I certainly don’t love them today,” he said of Frehley and Criss. “But the band as it is today is far more the embodiment of what we started than what we became.”

“They were instrumental in what we created as a team, but they became impossible and intolerable, on more than one occasion necessitating their removal. And unfortunately when people don’t really learn from their mistakes they repeat them. At some point you just lose tolerance. It’s ultimately disrespectful to the fans to not give them what they deserve. I don’t miss them.”

Even current bandmembers aren’t immune to Stanley’s sharp tongue. Of Gene Simmons, he recently said “I can see his ego from my house! Gene enjoys being out there saying ‘me, me, me’ when it’s actually ‘we, we, we.’” The band begins a summer tour with Motley Crue on July 20.